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Reports from the Milwaukee Road
by Lonnie King
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Part Two |
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Fernwood , ID |
Malden, WA |
Beverly, WA |
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Bovill, ID |
Pine City, WA |
Vantage, WA |
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Potlatch, ID |
Kenova, WA |
Beverly Junction, WA |
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Benewah, ID |
Ewan ,WA |
Renslow, WA |
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Rocky Point, ID |
Revere, WA |
Kittitas, WA |
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Peedee, ID |
Marengo, WA |
Ellensburg, WA |
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Plummer Junction, ID |
Ralston, WA |
Thorp, WA |
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Worley, ID |
Lind, WA |
Cle Elum, WA |
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Plummer, ID |
Warden, WA |
Easton, WA |
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Mowry, WA |
Othello, WA |
Whittier, WA |
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Tekoa, WA |
Taunton, WA |
Hyak, WA |
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Seabury, WA |
Corfu, WA |
Bandera, WA |
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Pandora, WA |
Smyrna, WA |
Cedar Falls, WA |
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Rosalia, WA |
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Date
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Location
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7/10 |
Fernwood, ID
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I remembered seeing the photo of the
old depot in Fernwood but never anticipated actually
seeing it on this trip but - at our MP = 2019.7; 10:06
THERE IT WAS: |
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7/10 |
Bovill, ID
We stopped in Bovill at 10:50 and had a cup of
coffee at the Elk Tavern (where we also placed a wager as to where a
certain chicken would leave sign of its presence in a certain coup
on Sat, 07/14/07 when we attend Bovill
Days) and wondered just how long it would linger before becoming
a ghost town! There truly is no place to get something to eat nor
anyplace to stay. The bartender in the Elk Tavern told us there was
a motel in Elk River but I certainly never found one searching the
internet when planning this trip! |
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7/10 |
Potlatch, ID |
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7/10 |
Benewah, ID |
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7/10 |
Rocky Point, ID
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Finding the Rocky Point Trestle almost proved a loss!
I suspect that the trip odometer in our rental was not as
accurate, because at the appropriate mileage from the turn
back on to SR-5 from where we’d exited to find the Benewah
Tunnel, I was met with a locked gate on the side road at
that point. Fortunately, I kept my eyes pealed and found it
about 0.5 miles further west! |
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7/10 |
Peedee, ID
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The next challenge was finding good access to a site to view
the Peedee Trestle. I took Stan’s suggestion #2 and
found the “other” access road which is immediately before
the sharp right turn at the top of the hill after you have
passed under the Peedee Trestle. A very short walk on an
almost level dirt road brought me to the west end of Peedee
Trestle, EE52. |
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I also took a photo looking west toward what I presume is
the east switch of the Peedee siding. |
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7/10 |
Plummer Junction, ID
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7/10 |
Worley, ID |
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7/10 |
Plummer, ID |
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7/15 |
Mowry, WA
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Per my plan, we drove back north on Indian Grave Rd to the
intersection of the old RoW where, before trying to drive it
to Washington, I took my obligatory westbound ... |
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...
and eastbound photos: |
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7/15 |
Tekoa, WA |
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7/15 |
Seabury, WA
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Still a bit further on, after having turned “west” on Fox
Rd, we come to the “Fox Rd Undercrossing” remnant. |
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My notes tell me that there was a steep access to the RoW on
the south side of this. Immediately after this
undercrossing we confirmed that Fox Rd. turned back sharply
to the left and we continued straight ahead on Engel Rd (as
shown on both the Mapquest map and the DeLorme Atlas). |
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At the junction of what the DeLorme Atlas said was the
intersection of Bongarts Rd and Engel Rd (as did the road
signs as I remember) but which the Mapquest Map said was the
intersection of Wilhelm Rd and Engel Rd, we see yet another
remnant of a pile trestle farm road overcrossing crossing
over Engel Rd. |
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We turned west on Bongarts Rd. (Wilhelm Rd.). It is in this
section that the actually route finding became a little
tenuous; the intersection of the road we wanted to take
north to Pandora, while being labeled as the junction of
Bongarts Rd and Wilhelm Rd in Mapquest was NOT so labeled in
actuality (on the ground!) nor in the DeLorme Atlas. So,
using some dead reckoning judgment I turned right at the
first intersection I came to after turning left (west) at
the previous intersection. |
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This appeared to be a little traveled road on which we
actually chased what we thought was a coyote for about a
mile. As predicted (from the Mapquest aerial photo map) the
road turned west at a large farm and eventually “passed
under” the RoW before coming to the Pandora (to the
west)/Waterman (to the east) intersection. Just before this
intersection we could not miss the under crossing at
MP=2553.4 @ 12:22: |
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7/15 |
Pandora, WA
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We turned west on Pandora Rd. and after another short drive
were to turn off with St. Johns Rd which, to my amazement
was ON the old RoW:
Our excitement was short lived however; almost
immediately after turning west on the RoW/St. John’s Rd. a
two tire rut track left the RoW and descended to a field
immediately to the south of the RoW. |
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After passing through the cut ... |
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... we came to the trestle remnant shown here. |
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7/15 |
Rosalia, WA |
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7/15 |
Malden, WA |
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7/15 |
Pine City, WA |
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7/15 |
Kenova, WA
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7/15 |
Ewan, WA |
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7/15 |
Revere, WA |
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7/15 |
Marengo, WA |
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7/16 |
Ralston, WA We
drove south from Ritzville on SR-261 to join the RoW in Ralston. Not
having learned my lessons of the previous several days well, I
managed to overexpose the two shots I took there but did not catch
it until we were in Lind (and did not especially want to drive back
to retake them!). |
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7/16 |
Lind, WA |
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7/16 |
Warden, WA
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There was little to see until we got to Warden where I was
surprised to find rails still in place on the west side of
Warden. Here is a view looking west ... |
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... and east, back across the highway crossing. |
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I found out later from my Milwaukee Rd engineer friend in
Othello that the Columbia Basin ROW still operates over
these rails. I also had no idea of the agriculture here,
especially potatoes. |
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We found the RoW again just before Othello: |
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7/16 |
Othello, WA |
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7/17 |
Taunton, WA
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I had always wondered where the Taunton substation was and
now I found it: |
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There were still rails down on ties here as well! Here is a
view west... |
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... and another from the switch looking back east. |
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We did not follow Dick’s recommendations on driving and did
turn off on Gillis Rd. from SR-26 to follow Lower Crab Creek
coulee all the way to Beverly. This portion of the road,
from the turn off to Smyrna was a rough dirt road but not as
rough as some we’d driven on earlier in the trip. Had we
not taken Gillis Rd. we would have missed out on some
spectacular coulee country! Here is a photo looking
westward shortly after we’d turned on to Gillis Rd. |
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7/17 |
Corfu, WA |
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7/17 |
Smyrna, WA
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At Smyrna (a few farm houses) the road crosses from the
north side of the RoW to the south and we look west ... |
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...and then east noting that there had just been a
significant brush fire in the area. |
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A few miles further west and a mile or so east of Beverly
we too crossed the creek... |
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... looking west. |
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7/17 |
Beverly, WA |
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7/17 |
Vantage, WA
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7/17 |
Beverly Junction, WA |
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7/17 |
Renslow, WA |
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7/17 |
Kittitas, WA |
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7/17 |
Ellensburg, WA
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The route through Ellensburg has essentially been eliminated
by the college there and I never did truly find where the
RoW ended and began again. We did pick it up again on the
west side of town: |
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Westbound |
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Eastbound |
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7/17 |
Thorp, WA
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We stayed off I-90 and saw some lovely country; here the RoW
is crossing the highway to the south side of the Yakima
River: |
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Here are two shots from down in the Yakima River canyon: |
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7/17 |
Cle Elum, WA |
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7/18 |
Easton, WA
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We finally got underway for Seattle at 11:29. Our first
stop was Easton to try to see the RoW there: |
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Westbound |
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Eastbound |
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7/18 |
Whittier, WA
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We drove out to the east end of Lake Kechelus on FR-54 to
find the RoW as it began its journey down the south side of
that lake: |
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Westbound |
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Eastbound |
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I took one last shot looking westward along the RoW: |
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but another came our blurred! |
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7/18 |
Hyak, WA |
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7/18 |
Bandera, WA
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At 14:35 at our MP=3101.7 found this RoW crossing of FR-9020
where I took a westbound photo ... |
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... and an eastbound photo, all in a gentle rain. |
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7/18 |
Cedar Falls, WA
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We turned off south on the Cedar Falls Road naively
believing our DeLorme Atlas in our effort to drive to the
John Wayne Trail trailhead there and then on through Cedar
Falls to Renton, WA. |
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We did find the trailhead, again in a gentle rain and I took
the last of my photos, again, a westbound view ... |
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... followed by and eastbound view. |
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7/18 |
And, it was over! We
had arranged to pick our son up in Seattle when I got off work (we
were staying with him) so we were unable to really explore the old
Milwaukee Road in Renton. Perhaps another time or perhaps someone
else will do it.
It’s been very educational!! |
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